As you read the reviews on Bookshop Talk, you'll notice that every review is positive.No, we're not a bunch of literarypushovers who love everything we pick up; we just see no point in telling you about a book if we didn't like it.

Ammi-Joan Paquette

The Hosts of Bookshop Talk

January 25, 2016

Twelve-year-old Lanesha
lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't
have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the
other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her
fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to
predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful
hurricane--Katrina--fast approaching, it's up to Lanesha to call upon
the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive
the storm. (Goodreads)Reviewed by Julie, children's literature enthusiast and pop culture geek

I'm
writing this review at the end of February, as Black History Month draws to a
close. Throughout the month, I've seen several lists and blog posts that
feature wonderful children's books celebrating black history. One book
that has been wrongfully missing from these lists is NINTH WARD by Jewell
Parker Rhodes.

NINTH WARD can be classified as historical fiction, although the
history it presents may be recent in the minds of older readers. The
story takes place during the onset of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans,
Louisiana's Ninth Ward. Readers see the disaster through the eyes of the
narrator, twelve-year-old Lanesha as she struggles to survive the flood.
Although Lanesha doesn't have much, she has her friend TaShon, her guardian
Mama Ya Ya, and the ghostly apparition of her deceased mother to remind her of
the strength she has.

Lanesha is one of my favorite recently-discovered
characters. She narrates her own story with beautiful, spare prose that
sheds a light into her as a person: she loves math, vocabulary, and learning,
and she hopes to be an architect one day. Although she has an
"uptown family" consisting of relatives that want nothing to do with
her, she forms her own sense of community among her friends and guardians in
Ninth Ward. Her gift of sight, which allows her to see and speak with
ghosts, gives her a special understanding of the place she was born into,
including its rich past and current social and political problems. Her
voice is mature and interesting, and I enjoyed reading what felt like a very
honest and balanced account of what life was like for young victims of
Hurricane Katrina.

Although Black History Month is confined to February, it is
important to continue reading about and celebrating these stories throughout
the course of the year. NINTH WARD is a gripping story of survival and
hope featuring a fantastic main character, but it also provides an important
glimpse into recent history, an event from which many people are still
recovering.

Market: Middle
grade/YA fiction

Violence: References
to gang-related violence in protagonist's neighborhood. One character is
hurt by bullies.

January 18, 2016

When
Crispin, Lord Cavratt, thoroughly and scandalously kisses a serving woman in
the garden of a country inn, he assumes the encounter will be of no
consequence. But he couldn't be more mistaken, the maid is not only a lady of
birth, she's the niece of a very large, exceptionally angry gentleman, who
claims Crispin has compromised his niece beyond redemption. The dismayed young
lord has no choice but to marry Miss Catherine Thorndale, who lacks both money
and refinement and assumes all men are as vicious as her guardian uncle.
(Goodreads)Reviewed by Brooke – Wife, Mother, ReaderThis is
a bit of a "Cinderella" story (my favorite by the way).
Catherine lives in a horrible situation. She is a lady, but under
the cruel rule of her uncle. Crispin, a gentleman, kisses Catherine,
thinking it harmless. Crispin being the gentleman that he is, agrees to
marry Catherine when her uncle insists. The marriage saves Catherine from
her situation with her uncle, but now she is married to a stranger.THE
KISS OF A STRANGERhas a bad guy, a really good bad guy. The Uncle
fills this role well. Crispin is a wonderful hero. He has good
morals. He may at times not know what’s right, but he wants to be the
true good guy. Catherine is a damsel in distress. Crispin saves her
like the Prince saves Cinderella from the Wicked Stepmother.
Although Catherine is shy, she and Crispin have some really fun banter.
Catherine comes out of her shell when she is not under the rule of her
uncle. I like the dynamic between these two characters. One of my favorite
characters (besides the hero and heroine), is Crispin's sister, Lizzie.
She is a wonderful supporting character, loving and kind when Catherine
needs a friend. Another favorite minor character is Philip Jonquil.
He is such a good character that the author has written a book with him
as the main character. He is witty and adds humor to the book.Sarah M.
Eden writes lovely historical romances and I recommend her books if you like
clean romance.Market: Adult Clean
Historical Fiction

January 11, 2016

For more than fifty years, the country has been
affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations
Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions. Lucy Carlyle, a
talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead
she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run
by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly
wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately
this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England,
and trying to escape alive. (Goodreads)

Reviewed by Valette
M.Lucy Carlyle makes a
plucky and determined heroine -- she has to be to continue to face down ghosts
night after night. She is adventurous, yet moderately levelheaded and makes a
nice support of a team consisting of Lockwood (who prefers to charge in guns
-- ahem -- rapiers blazing) and George, who's perhaps a little
bit too reserved. The chemistry in the team was very entertaining, consisting
of the rough bumps and snappishness of a family but also the fierce
loyalty and general camaraderie. They worked together well, almost
mesmerizingly so in a battle scene. And yet they weren't infallible, and there
were times when their age bled through, serving to put things in perspective
and up the ante.THE
SCREAMING STAIRCASEstarts out with quite a kick. The reader is
thrown directly into the action with no info dump needed to get a hold of the
dramatic and intricate, perhaps far more so than currently seen, world. Ghost
hunting, though always carrying an intrinsic fear, was never so intense. The
stakes upped. And then they upped again. And right when the plot was tying up,
it didn't. So to those of you who've missed the feel of biting your nails, this
one's for you. Though it could be considered a 'ghost' book, Jonathan Stroud
has broken all the tropes of the genre to bring us a swashbuckling, plot-hole
free narrative that just gets better and better.The Bartimeaus Trilogy is one of my favorite series by far. The magic system
and depth of the alternate history blew my mind. I can safely say that Lockwood
and Co is well on its way to attaining the same. Again set in an alternate
London, this time the people are coping with The Problem, a serious rash of
hauntings. Reality melds smoothly with paranormal activity, in the newest book
from Jonathan Stroud, and also the newest book on my favorites list.Market: Young Adult

January 4, 2016

A tragic accident has turned eleven-year-old
Aubrey’s world upside down. Starting a new life all alone, Aubrey has
everything she thinks she needs: SpaghettiOs and Sammy, her new pet fish. She
cannot talk about what happened to her. Writing letters is the only thing that
feels right to Aubrey, even if no one ever reads them. With the aid of her loving grandmother and new friends, Aubrey learns that she
is not alone, and gradually, she finds the words to express feelings that once
seemed impossible to describe. The healing powers of friendship, love, and
memory help Aubrey take her first steps toward the future. (Goodreads)Reviewed by Jaina, who spends most of her
time reviewing books at Read Till
DawnGosh, I love LOVE,
AUBREY so much. And oh, how it makes me cry! I have read many sad fictional
books, from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (honestly, so many people die
in that book!) to books about the Titanic and the last Romanovs, but most of
them can't bring me to tears. They can make me really, really sad, it's true,
but they can't make me actually cry. This book, though, gets the waterworks
flowing in the first three chapters and never lets them stop. And this may
sound miserable, but it's actually wonderful.You see, this is a story of pain and grief and abandonment, but it's also the
story of love and friendship and strength at the worst of times. It is the
story of Aubrey, whose father and sister died in a car accident. Her mother was
so incredibly consumed with grief she ran away from home a few months after the
funeral, leaving Aubrey behind to take care of herself. The story is told in
first person past tense, which worked well for the story by providing a
compelling contrasts with the first person present flashback scenes in which
Aubrey remembers life before the car accident. Instead of an info-dump at the
beginning of the story we gradually find out the events of Aubrey's past as she
is forced to remember them, which (you guessed it!) provides haunting snapshots
throughout the story of how much Aubrey has lost.The saddest parts of the narrative, however, are probably
the letters Aubrey writes. At the beginning of the book she writes letters to
her sister's imaginary friend Jilly as a way to sort of indirectly talk to a
piece of her sister. As she begins to come to grips with everything that has
happened to her, she starts to write more directly to her mother, father, and
sister, telling them what she wishes she could say to them in person. She signs
each letter "Love, Aubrey," which is the source of the title.This is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite
books. It's heart-wrenching, but it's also realistic and heartwarming.
Aubrey has had the unthinkable happen to her family, and she responds the way
any real person would - through denial, through tears, and through shutting
down at any reminder of what has happened. But as the story goes along, she
learns to cope and to forgive and to live her new life with her grandmother and
best friend/neighbor Bridget.This is an amazing book, and I wholeheartedly recommend
it. But please, know what you are getting into. This is not a light or easy
read, and if you don't want to read a book that will make you cry, then don't
pick this one up. But know that it does not just toy with the emotions: it is
sad because terrible, tragic things happen in life, and sometimes you have to
cry about them.Market: Middle Grade

Language: None
Sensuality: None
Violence: Mild/Moderate (Aubrey has flashbacks to the car accident that killed
her father and sister)

Mature Themes: Dealing with the realities of death and parental abandonment